Azerbaijan’s president said on Monday that Russia was “guilty” over the downing of an airline last month that Baku says was shot by Russian air defenses. An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 jet crash-landed in Kazakhstan on December 25, killing 38 of the 67 people on board, after being diverted from a scheduled landing in the…
A Bangladeshi court has issued a second arrest warrant for exiled former leader Sheikh Hasina, this time for her alleged role in enforced disappearances, the chief prosecutor said on Monday. Dhaka has already issued an arrest warrant on charges of crimes against humanity for 77-year-old Hasina, who fled to old ally India in August after…
Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein said Israeli forces began withdrawing Monday from a south Lebanon border town more than halfway into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. It is the second such pullout since a November 27 ceasefire, and came after United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon’s prime minister late last month had called on the Israeli…
More than 51,000 households were left without gas and 1,500 apartment buildings had no winter heat in Moldova’s pro-Russian separatist enclave, authorities said on Monday, after Ukraine refused to extend a transit agreement with Russia last week. Transdniestria, a mainly Russian-speaking separatist region along the Ukrainian border, had received Russian gas via Ukraine for decades, using…
A knife-wielding man was arrested outside the Belgian prime minister’s offices in Brussels on Monday following a confrontation with security guards, authorities said. No one was injured in the incident, which happened at around 10 am (0900 GMT), police said, adding that they had launched an investigation. “I would like to warmly thank the military…
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday urged Ukraine to have “realistic” expectations on territory as its fight against the Russian invasion heads into a fourth year, saying he saw no “quick and easy solution” to the conflict. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, is currently occupying about 20 percent of the neighboring country’s territory….
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday that he would resign as leader of the ruling Liberals after nine years in office but he will stay on in his post until the party chooses a replacement. Trudeau, under heavy pressure from Liberal legislators to quit amid polls showing the party will be crushed at the…
Syrian state media said a five-day security operation in Homs city ended Monday, with a war monitor reporting hundreds of arrests. “We announce the end of the combing campaign in the neighborhoods of Homs city after achieving the campaign’s objectives,” the SANA news agency said, quoting the head of Homs’s General Security agency without naming the official….
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced confidence Monday that a ceasefire deal in Gaza would come together, but possibly after President Joe Biden leaves office on January 20. Blinken, who tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully last year to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, said that the Biden administration “will work every minute of…
Cyberattacks on Taiwan government departments doubled in 2024 from the previous year to an average of 2.4 million attacks a day, the island’s National Security Bureau said, adding most of them were launched by Chinese cyber forces. Taiwan has in recent years complained about what it sees as China’s “grey-zone harassment” – from daily military…
Malaysia’s appeals court on Monday granted a bid by jailed ex-premier Najib Razak to see a document he said should allow him to serve his sentence at home, in a rare win for a disgraced former leader at the heart of the country’s biggest scandal. Najib, who was jailed over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, had…
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is likely to announce his resignation this week as he faces mounting dissent within his Liberal Party, newspaper The Globe and Mail reported Sunday. Citing three anonymous sources knowledgeable of internal party matters, the Globe said Trudeau’s announcement could come as early as Monday. The announcement would likely come before…
The Biden administration plans to announce Monday that it will ease restrictions on humanitarian aid for Syria, speeding delivery of basic supplies without lifting sanctions that restrict other assistance to the new government in Damascus, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The step, approved by the administration over the weekend, authorizes the Treasury Department…
The Biden administration plans to impose more sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine, taking aim at its oil revenues with action against tankers carrying Russian crude, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Sunday. President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to shore up support for Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump takes…
